Chapter 65: Don’t You Dare
** Eli **
His father looked ... confused. "We have discussed this before you started this job. Your sister—"
"Half-sister."
"—has very different interests and skills from you. Leading a large investment firm is neither her strength or wish, but it aligns well with yours instead. You’ve always been the sole heir to this enterprise, and it is for your own benefit. So why are you always talking as if it’s an insufferable pain to you?"
"Because it is. Because I never wanted any jobs from you." It was getting a bit old, how every conversation between the two of them always came back onto this topic. "I don’t have much choice on the matter though, do I? So here I am, fulfilling my duties like a good son just as you wished. But I don’t recall ever agreeing that those duties involve ’settling down’, and I find it hard to understand why such a thing should be of any relevance to you. The easier solution, clearly, would be to make your daughter the main shareholder regardless of who sits in this CEO office. Then I wouldn’t be the one inheriting the business after all."
His father opened his mouth, then closed it again and sighed. "Do you always have to assume the worst intentions whenever someone tries to do something for you? You are in a turbulent phase of your life, Eli. I’m simply trying to guide you as someone who’s already been through the same trials before. You need an anchor, a partner who can support you in both career and everyday troubles. Someone talented, cultured, and resourceful with their family connections. It will do you much good if you can put away those playboy attitudes and try to behave like a responsible man to pursue them."
The "guidance", coming from his father out of all people, was so insanely ironic and hypocritical that it finally crossed the line. "Thanks to you, I believe I lack the genes of being ’a responsible man’." Eli abruptly rose from his seat. "So if you have nothing better to propose, I’m going to walk away from this absolute bullshit of a conversation and get back to work. There’s no hope of actually making any deals if all you ask for is nonsense."
He didn’t make it out of the door, however, before his father huffed. "Is this about Harper McKenzie, then? At least last time, you were more than thrilled to show up to the date I set up just to embarrass me. How long have you been seeing her by now, and how long will this one last?"
The rebuke made Eli halt. "Harper is a friend," he snapped, turning back, "as I have been made to clarify a few too many times recently."